Mercury News editorial: Memorial Day more inclusive of women this year

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ARLINGTON, VA – NOVEMBER 11: 2nd Lieutenant Jenna Grassbaugh, whose husband Captain Jonathan Grassbaugh was killed in Iraq, remembers lost colleagues while visiting Arlington National Cemetery November 11, 2007 in Arlington, Virginia. Family and friends of U.S. service members across the country remembered the nation’s military personnel today on Veterans Day. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

What we honor — what we choose to memorialize — helps define our values and our culture.

This Memorial Day we can celebrate a subtle shift, thanks to a bill signed last week by President Barack Obama that allows women pilots who put their lives on the line in World War II to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

This may seem esoteric, but the symbolism is powerful. Equal rights, opportunities and treatment of women still are far from reality today, particularly in the all-volunteer armed forces, where the talents of strong, smart women are needed.

Recognizing retroactively the brave service of women in past conflicts builds a stronger base for women’s rights today, in the military and in all of society. That appreciation strengthens America.

In Monday’s Mercury News, columnist Gary Peterson tells how Tiffany Miller of Walnut Creek won the fight to allow her late grandmother, World War II pilot Elaine Harmon, to be buried at Arlington. Celebrating the victory was Jean Harman, 91, of Menlo Park, who also served in the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots, or WASP. They were not sent into combat, but they performed critical jobs, including testing planes and moving them from base to base.

“We went through the same training the male cadets did,” Harman told Peterson. “We were all pilots. We were elite.”

Today women pilots are in the thick of combat. Air Force Maj. Kim Campbell was flying missions in Iraq while her father, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, was serving on the City Council. She won a Distinguished Flying Cross for piloting her damaged fighter back to its base after being hit over Baghdad.

In World War II, she would have been a WASP.

Retroactive recognition is not pointless. Rewriting history, often used in a negative context, is a good thing if the history as passed down reflects the values of a different time and falls short of a fuller truth. The story of Japanese internment in World War II now is viewed very differently from the 1940s.

Memorial Day is a time to break out the barbecue and enjoy a long weekend. But the flags we see pop out on porches and lawns — and the solemn services that take place at cemeteries and memorials — remind us of the day’s solemn origin.

It’s not a bad thing to combine remembrance and gratitude with taking joy in the life that those we honor made possible.

Just broaden that gratitude a bit more to remember those whose contributions may have been minimized because of race or gender, but nevertheless helped make us what we are. It will make us all stronger.